Hyderabad: It seems that neither the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB), nor the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), have learnt any lesson from the many water crises that have hit the city. Both nodal agencies have taken up awareness campaigns to promote the construction of rainwater harvesting (RWH) pits over the years, but it has not had much of an impact.
The construction of RWH pits is mandatory for buildings constructed on a plot measuring more than 100 square feet, but rampant corruption at the ground level of the civic authorities has resulted in failure in implementing the rule. The Water Board, which promoted construction of RWH pits during the summer, has not laid out any plan of its own to recharge groundwater.
The GHMC has accorded permissions to 7,816 buildings in 2014-15 and the same number in 2015-16, 8,704 in 2016-17, 15,777 in 2017-18 and 18,105 in 2018-19. A source said that 95 per cent of these building were constructed on plots bigger than 100 square metres.
This apart, the Water Board has stated that it has constructed about 9,000 RWH pits since 2014 and restored 8,000 harvesting pits in May 2019 alone.
Sources pointed out that if the numbers presented by the nodal agencies are genuine, the city would not be facing water crisis and a shortfall of 270 million gallons a day.
If the rainwater harvesting pits had been constructed according to norms in the thousands of buildings that were accorded permission in the past five years, the groundwater levels would have improved, sources said.
Sources said that if the two agencies did not wake up now and use rain-water to recharge the groundwater, the water crisis facing the city would intensify.
The focus should be on maintenance of harvesting pits. The focus of the GHMC and the water board is on taking temporary measures during a crisis, rather than working towards a permanent solution by making citizens accountable.
The field staff of the civic authorities does not inspect RWH structures regularly. Occupancy certificates are to be given to owners of the buildings only if they have provisions for RWH.
When asked about rainwater harvesting, a senior town planning official said that it was the responsibility of the citizens to construct the pits and maintain them. He said that town planning officials were not able to inspect the buildings and check the facilities due to staff crunch.
The official said that during random inspections, builders show the inspection staff the space left for the harvesting pits. In most cases, the builders do not construct them later.
He said officials would meet soon to set up a mechanism to monitor rainwater harvesting pits and make builders accountable.
